After a day in Tashkent we took a shared taxi down about 300km to Samarkand, driving though a flat terrain of cotton fields (the Russians and Soviets strongly promoted the cotton cash crop at the expense of the local economy and the environment) and bare hills that could have fit in California. Samarkand was incredible. Think of the palace in Disney's Aladin and you have Samarkand. The city was the center of the empire carved out by Tamerlane, a 14th Century descendent of Gengis Khan who tried and almost succeeded in matching his ancestor's empire. Tamerlane brought architects and artists from the whole Muslim world (but especially Iran) and had them build stunning masterpieces that still stand today. Without going into the details of each elegant, ornately decorated blue tiled building, I will suffice to say that I would estimate seeing four madrassas, twenty masuleums, three mosques and an observatory in Samarkand alone. In fact we probably saw more world class pieces of architecture than we did tourists in our four days in Samarkand.
Bidi Khanum's madrassa complex
The tomb complex of Tamerlane's descendants
Local women at the tombs 
The tomb of the Prophet Daniel which Tamerlane brought from Susa, Iran. The Prophet supposedly grows a quarter of an inch every year hence the long tomb. The Iranians claim that he's actually in Susa after all. 
Women outside the tomb of the Prophet Daniel
A vodka soaked lunch at the table next to us in Samarkand
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